CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20989, 18 October 1933, Page 6

CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES

o WIDE VARIATIONS MR A. L. CRQPF'S IMPRESSIONS An extremely wide variance in the culture of the people of America was noted by Mr A. L. Cropp, who returned to Christchurch yesterday from a three months' trip to the Pacific Coast of the United States. On the one hand he found a genuine and intelligent appreciation of music and other arts, and on the other, talking pictures so crude as to make them require heavy censoring before being fit for exhibition in this country. Mr Cropp was naturally extremely interested in the music of the country, and it was with the deepest regret that he found that he had to leave a fortnight before the opening of the San Francisco opera season. He went to the opera house, a magnificent building, where lie saw mechanics preparing the stage for the boat; scene set in "Tristan and Isolde/' with which the season was to open.

'■' Music generally in America, both operatic and orchestral, gets wonderful support," said Mr Cropp. -,Anyone who thinks of America as a country whose national music is jazz is entirely mistaken. The Minneapolis, the New York Symphony, and the Boston Symphony are orchestras which compare favourably with any in the world." A number of prominent European conductors had become domiciled in America, and throughout the country the standard of the best music was very high indeed. Radio programmes were exceptionally good in this way. It was possible by choosing stations to'listen every night to the finest music.

Mi" Cropp, who was accompanied by his wife and daughter, visited Vancouver, Portland, and San Francisco. They encountered excessive heat all down the Pacific Coast, the temperature one day in Portland being 104 in the shade, the highest for 30 years. They also' visited the Yosemite Valley, which Mr Cropp said was really magnificent. They saw it first by moonlight, when the cliffs stood out with every detail of their grandeur visible. Mr Cropp saw Crawford and McGrath play tennis in America, and on the way home saw Perry and Lee plays doubles against Quist and Turnbull in Tahiti, and also in Rarofonga. It was sparkling tennis. MeGrath's backhand was particularly impressive. Although he had an excellent lime in America. Mr Cropp expressed his pleasure at being homo again.